The Dark Ages Project
One period that is virtually untouched in 1/72 is the Dark Ages.
Actually, this is changing, but when I started this project, the
only Dark Ages sets out there were Revell's Normans and Saxons, which
were seriously under-horsed and out of poduction anyway.
When my brother gave me a bag of 28mm Vikings, I started thinking about
doing the period in lead. Then it struck me -- there is a
(relatively)
cheap way to do lead: do it yourself. I had always known about
Prince
August's molds, but never saw them for sale, until I stumbled across
the
Dunken's website.
Two molds looked great for the period: 681 Barbarian Raiders and 667
Mounted Warrior and Horse. The barbarians are obviously a Viking,
Saxon, and Gaul. The first two I basically could use as-is,
although it would turn
out that some castings had to have their axes & spears replaced,
and
I eventually converted a few of their shields to the kite-shaped
"Norman" stlye (which in all probability comes from either Denmark or
the Middle East originally...). The Gaul is suitable to portray a
Viking berserk or a Saxon slinger (the hand is open for a sword but a
simple sling made of paper
can be substituted).
The mounted warrior, unfortunately, is closer to true 25mm sclae than
the infantry, but they still work. The basic figure has only a
sword, but adding a shield is simple enough, and as you can see it is
possible to add a spear and even a new arm to hold it properly.
He wears a nasal helm, typical of the the period, but no armor.
I painted the tunic silver on some to give a mailed look and it
is passable.
The Normans are of course one of the attractions of the period so apart
from the cavalry I needed to improvise infantry, and fortunately I had
a
selection of 28mm plastics handy, from the Lionheart game and the
Weapons
and Warriors game.
The Saxon army can field on Horde element, which I made from unaltered
Lionheart
peasants:
The mass of Saxons are the Fyrd, of course, which count as Spears:
These are metal, from the PA mold. I used cheap metal, including
solder,
so not all of them cast perfectly.
Some had to have new spears made from florist wire. One was
missing
a bit of his head but I just painted him as a balding warrior in the
general's
element:
The general (white beard) has a sword, courtesy of a Gaul.
The Saxons used a few skirmishers, here reperesented by Gauls given
slings:
I couldn't place them on the scanner on their backs as the slings are
made
of paper stiffened with white glue and would probably break.
It seemed natural to morph the Saxons into Anglo-Danes as well, to
represent
later English armies such as Harold Godwinson's. That requires
two
blade elementes (Huscarls) and a blade general (more Huscarls with the
general).
I could have gone the easy route and used Vikings but I wanted
them
to look different in case they face Vikings on the table so I modified
the
W&W troopers significantly:
Their voulges were trimmed into axes and capes added after filing off
some
of their backs. Some had beards and/or mustaches added with
putty;
some just had their coifs painted as hair. Here is another
element:
As you can tell, they barely fit onto the 60mm frontage even with bases
trimmed.
They were given longer hauberks with some thin paper glued over
their
crotches and thighs. The capes were also paper and glue.
The same figures serve as Norman spears too:
These had the brims filed off their helmets, longer hauberks added as
on
the Huscarls, and polearmes trimmed into spears.
The bulk of the Norman army of course is cavalry, which I made from the
Warrior
on Horse mold. Here are some:
The far left is standard figure. The center had an arm replaced,
lance
added, and the last just had shield added. Most got the
appropriate
kite shield but some have round shields as in this picture so I could
also
morph them into Rohirrim to fight my fantasy troops.
Here is a Rohan light horse element, illustrating another arm
conversion:
This is a common pose from the Bayuex tapestry. Again the shields
are
more appropriate for Rohirrim than Normans.
So with a combination of PA molds and plastic game peices, I
constructed
two armies with several morphs. I'll eventuall scan in some
Lionheart
archers converted to Normans (basically helms filed down) and perhaps
even
some Vikings.